The Importance of AI, Data Visualization, and Automation in the Real of Big Data The heralded economist and Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon is known for saying, “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”[1] Indeed, our […]

Major consumer-package-goods firms (CPG), like Kraft, Nestle, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have always operated with a blind spot about customers. This has always made marketing challenging. Although their products were often ingested by consumers, they rarely if ever met customers. CPG firms rarely knew their identify of customers and even at times had a poor understanding […]

Big Data, Open Data, and the Asymmetry of Information Anytime you own an asset, be it a building, stock, bond, or even a race horse, you want to measure it and determine how its value has changed in the market. Often this process is consider Asset Surveillance. We might think about it as how firms […]

Big Data Lessons from Ashley Madison: Privacy Implications and Data Monetization Strategies The recent hacking of user data from the match-making site, Ashley Madison has brought into focus a few important lessons that we should consider about how Big Data and our digital trails that are now incessantly monitored. Privacy is a Lost Privilege The […]

Big Data and the Value of Automated Data Capture The development of analytics that can process data and lead to automation and the removal of workers is very much discussion today. We read about artificial intelligence concerns from technology leaders like Bill Gates and economic leaders like Larry Summers. In fact, the use of data […]

Digital platforms are all around us. We used many each day. These platforms serve our needs but also create realms of Big Data – about or lives, media, shopping, health, and interest. LinkedIn is a great example of a powerful and successful digital platform. Parties interface digitally. Data is openly shared, transmitted, created, and then […]

The development of analytics that can process data and lead to automation and the removal of workers is very much discussion today. We read about artificial intelligence concerns from technology leaders like Bill Gates and economic leaders like Larry Summers. In fact, the use of data and analytics has been removing jobs from various industries […]

Big Data and Big Profits: Nest Optimizes the Mechanical Realm By now, most of us have seen or are even using programmable thermostats. One of the recent and more interesting offerings in this space is from Nest. Nest sells a thermostat that captures data about human presence to self learn what heating and cooling decisions […]

Big Data Driving the Driverless Car: Digitizing Travel A major change to driving and travel is soon upon us. With little doubt, we can expect driverless cars in the next decade or so. However, it is not driverless cars that will change how we travel, but rather the digitization of travel, enabling driverless cars, which […]

The rapid and impressive rise of Uber and Airbnb in revolutionizing the car service and lodging industries is a testament to the rise of the “sharing economy.” In the sharing economy, assets that are traditionally owned and utilized by a single person for a single purpose, such as a personal car or personal apartment, are […]

Welcome to Big Data to Big Profits

As Clinical Professor at the Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University, and former Associate Director of the Zell Center for Risk Research, Russell Walker has developed and taught leading executive programs on Big Data and Analytics, Strategic Data-Driven Marketing, Enterprise Risk, Operational Risk, and Global Leadership.